Ambassador Joy – serval

THE STORY OF JOY 1 AND JOY 2

When Joy I came to us she was a 3 month old female serval, born at Zanchieta/Wildcat Farm, Bloemfontein. Raised by mommy Juli but, like in the wild, she needed to be kept away from her huge dad Jabula. Joy was born 20/03/2012 and was meant to be part of our Spotted Cats Conservation Project in SA/Eastern Cape. Joy was the new WCW ambassador serval and partner of the lovely male Diesel. Wild Cats World commissioned and funded a brand new enclosure for the two servals.

Adopt Joy / All about servals

Joy I was a very wild serval though, who made clear to us that she didn’t like to be in captivity and she didn’t want her new male friend Diesel around. She escaped a few times at the Zanchieta Wildcat Farm before she got to us, and she kept on trying at our place too. A decision had to be made. We want the cats at our project to be happy and not stressed and wild like Joy was at this moment.

A good thing about the smaller wild cats like serval and caracal is that you can easily re-wild them again and release them back into the wild. Joy was already wild enough, she wasn’t impressed by humans and showed she could easily get a bird to be able to survive. We hope she will have a great life where she wanted to be: FREE! She can easily stick around the farm, but so far we haven’t seen her again.

So then Joy II came in (see photos). Born in February 2012. Not a tame serval either, but much more relaxed and social than Joy I was. Most important Diesel loves his new girlfriend and that feeling is mutual. Even though Joy can be shy at busy times, she is often outside playing with Diesel now and we hope they have a great future together.


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